As illustrated in FIGS. 1A and 1B, a side sill garnish 4 may be mounted on a side sill 3 of a body 2 of a vehicle 1 for the purposes of protecting the vehicle body 2 from small stones hit against the vehicle body 2, improving aerodynamic properties of the vehicle body 2, and so on. The side sill garnish 4 is a molded article of synthetic resin. The side sill garnish 4 is attached to the outer surface of the vehicle body 2 so as to cover the side sill 3. A sealing member 5 made of rubber is arranged between the outer surface of the vehicle body 2 and the side sill garnish 4 so that the sealing member 5 could prevent rainwater, dust etc. from entering into the space between the outer surface of the vehicle body 2 and the inner surface of the side sill garnish 4.
The conventional sealing member 5 as illustrated in FIGS. 2A and 2B comprises a lip portion 6, a connecting portion 7 and a fixing portion 8, which are molded into one piece made of elastic materials such as synthetic rubber. The lip portion 6 is configured to extend from the upper surface of the side sill garnish 4 to the side sill 3 so as to close the elongated gap between the side sill garnish 4 and the side sill 3. The connecting portion 7 lies between the end face 9 of the side sill garnish 4 and the surface 10 of the side sill 3, so that the connecting portion 7 could prevent the side sill garnish 4 from bumping against the side sill 3 and also absorb the vibrations of the side sill garnish 4. The connecting portion 7 extends from the back side of the lip portion 6, wherein the junction of the portions 7 and 6 is approximately in the central area of the lip portion 6 as shown in FIGS. 2A and 2B. The fixing portion 8 extends from the lower end of the connecting portion 7 and further extends along the back side 11 of the side sill garnish 4. The fixing portion 8 is fixed to the back side 11 of the side sill garnish 4 by means of a double-sided adhesive tape 12.
The sealing member 5 of FIGS. 2A and 2B might possibly impose restrictions on modification of the design of the vehicle 1, because the lip portion 6 is exposed to the outside of the side sill 3 and the side sill garnish 4. In order to liberate the vehicle design from such restrictions, the sealing structure illustrated in FIGS. 2C and 2D has been proposed. The sealing structure of FIGS. 2C and 2D is characterized in that a stepped section 13 is formed in the lower half of the end face 9 of the side sill garnish 4 and a lip portion 15 of a sealing member 14 is received in the stepped section 13. In addition to the lip portion 15, the sealing member 14 has a connecting portion 16 and a fixing portion 17. The lip portion 15 is continuous with the connecting portion 16 and the connecting portion 16 is also continuous with the fixing portion 17. The fixing portion 17 extends along the back side 11 of the side sill garnish 4 and is fixed to the back side 11 of the side sill garnish 4 by means of a double-sided adhesive tape 12. The sealing member 14 shown in FIGS. 2C and 2D is integrally molded into one piece made of elastic materials such as synthetic rubber, in the same manner as the sealing member 5 of FIGS. 2A and 2B.
The sealing structure illustrated in FIGS. 2C and 2D has the advantage of being hard to see the sealing member 14 from the side of the vehicle 1, because the lip portion 15 of the sealing member 14 runs below the upper wall 18 having the thickness that is properly determined to obtain the above advantage. When the side sill garnish 4 shown in FIGS. 2C and 2D is mounted on the side sill 3 of the vehicle body 2, however, the lip portion 15 is possibly caught inside the side sill garnish 4 and become deformed irregularly due to the elasticity of the sealing member 14. It might be impossible to obtain desired functions and effects of the sealing member 14 from the lip portion 15 that has been irregularly deformed between the side sill 3 and the side sill garnish 4.
Japanese Patent Public Disclosure No. 2006-044292 (Japanese Patent Application No. 2004-223977) discloses a mounting structure of a protector for an automobile body, which is characterized by a small projection 24 that is hard to be irregularly deformed rather than an elongated lip 44 when being pressed against the surface of a vehicle body (refer to FIGS. 2-6 in the drawings). According to the mounting structure, however, the elastic deformation of the small projection 24 is inevitably limited to a narrow band of stroke against a body panel 1, because the small projection 24 is formed on the back of a concave portion 21 and a salient 13 of an exterior component 10 is fit into the concave portion 21, so that the small projection 24 is always arranged in the narrow gap between the body panel 1 and the salient 13 that is projecting toward the body panel 1. In addition, the small projection 24 is stiff as mentioned above. Therefore, the small projection 24 of the conventional mounting structure might not be able to conform closely to the body panel 1 over the entire length of the elongated gap between the body panel 1 and the exterior component 10, because the gap varies the form and size with location. If the small projection 24 mounted on the exterior component 10 might not be tight on the body panel 1 over the entire length of the elongated gap, the conventional mounting structure does not serve as a waterproof structure.